Joseph Black

The University
of Edinburgh, Where Joseph Black Studied

Joseph Black lived from 16 April 1728 to 6 December 1799. He was an
eminent Scottish physicist and chemist, a renowned teacher, and a practicing
medical doctor: and the chemistry buildings at both
Edinburgh and
Glasgow Universities
are named after him. The wider picture in Scotland at the time is set out in
our Historical Timeline.

Joseph Black was born in Bordeaux in France in 1728, one of the 15
children of an Ulster wine merchant of Scots descent based in the town. At the
age of 12, Joseph went to school in Belfast to learn Greek and Latin and at the
age of 16 he went to Glasgow University, where
he studied arts for four years. In 1748 he started to study medicine and
attended the chemistry lectures recently instituted there by the Professor of
Medicine, William Cullen.

Black went on to become Professor Cullen's laboratory assistant
before moving to Edinburgh University in
1752 to continue his medical studies. In 1756, Black returned to
Glasgow University, as
Professor of Anatomy and Botany and Lecturer in Chemistry. The following year
he became Professor of Medicine at Glasgow when Professor Cullen took
up a post at Edinburgh
University.

Although Black never married, he had a very active social life and
became an eminent member of the literary and scientific circles in what became
known as the Scottish
Enlightenment: he was also renowned for his flute playing. Amongst those he
knew well were Adam Smith,David Hume, Alexander Carlyle and
James Hutton.

Early in his scientific career, Black studied the properties of
magnesia alba, a basic magnesium carbonate that led
to his discovery of what he called "fixed air": carbon dioxide. This was the
first time that anyone had shown that air was made up of more than one gas.
And, almost as a footnote to this work, in 1755 he became the first person to
recognise magnesium as an element. After his return to Glasgow in 1756, he met
James Watt, who sparked an interest in the
properties of objects and substances when heated: Black's work on this was the
first systematic investigation of what later became known as thermodynamics.
Experiments he undertook led to the discovery of the concepts of latent heat
and specific heat; helped inform James Watt's
parallel work on the development of the steam engine; and transformed the way
heat was measured.

Joseph Black was a highly effective teacher, famous for his
practical demonstrations during lectures. He moved back to
Edinburgh University
to focus on chemistry in 1766, and students from across Europe and as far
afield as North America came to hear him teach, his course of lectures taking
place five times each week between November and March.

Meanwhile, Black was also pursuing a career as an eminent medical
doctor. Amongst his patients were the philosopher David Hume. He was also consulted over the
illness of the nurse of Walter Scott,
then still a child. He diagnosed her with consumption, or tuberculosis, which
lost the nurse her job, but possibly saved the life of the future
Sir Walter Scott.

Joseph Black himself never enjoyed the best of health, suffering
from breathing problems caused by a childhood illness; and later in his life he
suffered badly from rheumatism and, after becoming a vegetarian, from vitamin
deficiencies. Black died in Edinburgh on 6 December 1799,
and is buried in Greyfriars
churchyard.